Category Archives: Shopping Tips

I am slowly learning to be a smarter consumer when shopping at dollar stores after learning about many of the items being sold there that contain toxic chemicals like PVC, bromine, lead, flame-retardant chemicals, and more. That is NOT to say I haven’t purchased these items there before…I think many of us have. I can recall one of the favorite things my 2 boys played with around the age of one were the Mardi-Gras style beads. They wore them everywhere they went and loaded them in their toy trains like they were precious cargo. Unfortunately I am now learning that they are one of the most toxic items being sold at dollar stores. Just this past weekend I bought a fun strand of candy corn style Halloween lights to hang in my boys’ rooms for Halloween. Low and behold, they are on the list of being highly toxic. Window clings are another item I regularly buy for each holiday – my sons have been helping me hang them on windows around the house since the age of one. I cringe seeing that these, too can be highly toxic. This evening, I will be going thru our kitchen draw and removing all the fun, plastic straws we have purchased from the dollar stores as well since they apparently are not a wise dollar store purchase. They will be replaced with these Stainless Steel Drinking Straws – Set of 6 which is so worth the price of $8.95 if it is not only a safer, but longer lasting alternative!

The article posted on Woman’s Day earlier this year about The 10 Most Toxic Items at Dollar Stores is a real eye opener and should be read by anybody who shops at dollar stores. We all love a bargain, but in the end, a bargain isn’t worth harming your health. You can still shop at the dollar store, but the point I am trying to get across is to be a smart, educated consumer and be wise about your purchasing decisions. I still shop at the dollar store weekly but have learned to choosy about what I purchase and I urge you to do the same. There are still lots of healthy choices you can buy at dollar stores like what I got in my shopping trip at 99 Cents Only on 9/20/15 here – but while shopping there, I think it is important to keep in mind that these items are many of the potentially toxic items that maybe you should avoid:

If you are like me, you probably have tons of photos saved on your computer, phone or camera that need to be organized in a way that will allow you to be able to find them and look at them easily and in an organized fashion. A great way of doing this is by organizing them in a photo book offered by Shutterfly, where you can customize your book with whatever pictures you want, backgrounds, layouts, embellishments and more! Shutterfly gives very affordable options of doing this by frequently running promotions and offering coupons where you can often get photos, photobooks and other gifts for free, while just paying the shipping costs. I am subscribed to several email lists where I frequently receive such promotions and I wanted to share them with my readers since I know they are very much in demand and I never have enough to share with all of you who want them:

Shop Your Way is a rewards program that rewards you when you shop at Sears, Kmart, Lands’ End, Sears Auto Centers, and mygofer. I frequently receive emails from this program offering money off purchases within the store as well as coupons for Shutterfly!

Go to the signup link at the top of the page to register for their email list. When you sign up, you will gain immediate access to printable coupons, tips, apps and more. They have also emailed Shutterfly coupons in the past.

If you are pregnant or a new mom, this is a great email list to sign up for. They will send you weekly updates about your pregnancy, your baby’s first year as well as formula samples, coupons, Shutterfly coupons and more!

If you are a Discover Card holder, be sure to sign in to your online account and go to the “Rewards” tab on top of the screen to sign up for the 5% Cashback Bonus that they offer all year long. You can sign up 4x a year for different offers and for the months of July thru December, 2015, they are giving a 5% Cashback Bonus on up to $1,500 in purchases at Department Stores and Amazon! More details are listed below. In the past, we have earned quite a bit of Cashback with this program. I like that you can turn around and apply the Cashback to future Amazon purchases. You can also put it right into your bank account, apply to your credit card statement, donate it or order gift cards online. Check it out and save more while shopping at Amazon!

I wanted to share about a website I found when I am searching for new books for my home library – Better World Books. They have a clearance section on their website where you can get used books for $2.50 each when you purchase 6 or more. I have purchased books for my kids with a great experience. I did take a chance in purchasing a couple of “pop-up” books that were listed in “acceptable or good” condition and unfortunately they came with more damage than I desired. I emailed the company and they refunded me with no issues. Other books I ordered were great or in better shape than I expected. Shipping is free and they often offer coupons such as this one which gives 10% off 2 or more books: BOOKS4GOOD. Some other wonderful things to note about this company is that for every book purchased thru them, they donate a book to somebody in need. It’s also a great way to save books from going to landfills by buying used and a way to keep more green in your pocket!

Some of you may wonder how I know when items are at their lowest price ever when searching for deal on Amazon.com. My favorite tool to use is CamelCamelCamel. There, you can paste the link of the product you are interested in from Amazon to track it’s price history. This is the price history on a favorite infant toy in our household, the Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes Musical Toy. It is currently on sale for $6.69. The price trend shown below shows it’s lowest price ever on Amazon was $6.49 back on December 6, 2011. With it being just $.20 more than the lowest price, this is an excellent price for this much loved toy! I use this price tracker a lot when I am trying to figure out if an item is a good deal or not. You can also use it to set up price alerts so that it notifies you when something hits a certain price you designate, or if the price drops. It is a really handy tool! I hope this helps the rest of you when you are shopping on Amazon!